1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a music performing apparatus and method, and a computer readable medium, and more particularly to such a music performing apparatus and method, and a computer readable medium containing computer readable program instructions to configure a computer system to construct such a music performing apparatus or to perform processes for such a method in which a musical performance is conducted according to manipulative operations by a player together with an automatic accompaniment performance which is conducted according to automatically progressing rhythm signals in the properties and manners of performance as determined by the registration or set states of controls in the panel, and in which registrations are stored in a storage device and the player can selectively call any of the stored registrations to arbitrarily change registrations for the performance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Music performing apparatuses such as electronic musical instruments are conventionally provided with plural control switches and knobs in the panel which respectively set respective parameters determining properties and manners of tone generation and accompaniment progression, and a musical performance is conducted according to such a panel set state. The panel set states may be arbitrarily changed by the user individually setting the respective parameters according to the user's intention, while some preset panel states are also prepared in the form of a combination of parameters (defined as a registration for a performance) having respective recommendable values for the performance. Such registrations are represented by data sets each indicating the parameter values defining each panel set state, and such registration data sets are stored in a storage device so that the player can call a desired registration from among the stored ones by manipulating a registration call switch (a gang-setting preset switch). When a registration is called, the tone properties and controls, the accompaniment manners and styles and so forth are collectively set (changed) for the musical performance. On the music performing apparatus provided with such a registration call function, the player can perform music using various property controls and accompaniment manners as changed one after another by manipulating the registration call switch during the musical performance.
The registration data for such a registration call function, however, may include data for setting properties and manners of the accompaniment performance. Therefore, if the registrations are changed in the middle of the musical performance using an automatic accompaniment, the accompaniment will lack integrity and consistency, as the sections in the course of accompaniment, the split points for the chord key range, and the like may be altered during the accompaniment running. From this point of view, the registration should not be called anew at the time the automatic accompaniment is running.
In order to solve such a problem, there has been proposed a freeze function as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,778, in which particular parameters among the registration data are specifically frozen so as not to be used for alteration even when the registration is called. But such a freeze function needs troublesome setting for individual parameters to edit each freeze mode, and therefore it has been difficult for the user to understand the way of setting the freeze function and to actually set the same in the electronic musical instrument having such capability.